KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Police arrested a wanted man who was on the run for nearly a month in connection to the murder of a man in Monroe County, Tennessee.
According to the Columbia Police Department in South Carolina, Nicholas Wayne Hamlett was located and identified at a Columbia Hospital on Sunday.
Hamlett is now in temporary custody with the Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force after a hospital employee recognized Hamlett and notified the police. According to CPD, a responding Sgt also recognized the suspect.
CPD said Hamlett's identity was confirmed with the University of South Carolina Police Department with a fingerprint scanner. Arrangements are being made with Tennessee authorities regarding Hamlett's extradition to Monroe County, CPD said.
Police said Nicholas Wayne Hamlett called 911 on Oct. 18 pretending to be an injured hiker who fell off a cliff while running from a bear and who was partially in some nearby water. Hamlett told dispatchers that he was "Brandon Andrade." When authorities arrived, they found a body — but it wasn't Andrade's.
The body turned out to be that of Steven Douglas Lloyd, a 34-year-old man from Knoxville who struggled with his mental health and subsequently spent some time living on the streets. The body had identification cards belonging to Andrade, which authorities said had been stolen and used several times before.
Dozens of people near a Knoxville shelter said they recognized a picture of Lloyd, and a few said he had been in the area weeks before his death. They also described him as a person who kept to himself and was respectful.
Authorities said Hamlett had befriended Lloyd before the murder, gaining his trust in order to later steal his identity.
